


let the vibe

by marsakat



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Bucket Hat, Chlorine Music Video, Endless Summer - Freeform, Established Relationship, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-07
Updated: 2019-02-07
Packaged: 2019-10-23 16:47:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17687279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsakat/pseuds/marsakat
Summary: Josh found the pool cleaning job from a flyer on a bulletin board— he's certain his employer doesn't sleep and that summer will never end.





	let the vibe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheDyingSun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDyingSun/gifts).



> this is a story about denial and choosing to step out of your comfort zone.

_ Wash, rinse, repeat.  _

Josh ripped his eyes open, waking from a dream of being roasted alive— direct sunlight on his face from the window whose shade Tyler refused to close. Cicadas’ chatter forewarned another scorcher of a day, and Josh groaned. He draped his sweat-sticky arm over his eyes, barely finding darkness in the crook of his elbow. 

“Nah-uh,” came the voice that Josh anticipated. “No going back to sleep. There’s work to do.”

His face and arm stung from peeling apart— as brief as the contact was, the heat glued him together. Josh pictured himself dissolving in the mattress, liquefying and spilling over the sides of the queen sized mattress that lay on the floor in the room papered by old movie posters.  _ Liquid— water— pool— shower— cold.  _

Josh sat up. “Gonna take a shower first,” he told Tyler.

“You showered before bed last night,” Tyler reminded. His back was to Josh, underwear back on— tanned skin from their days outside. 

“Yeah, well it’s hot in here and I’m sweaty.”

“What’s the point if you’re gonna get sweaty while working?” 

“It’ll be five minutes where I actually feel cold.” Josh didn’t bother putting on his boxer briefs. 

“Ten minutes… sometimes fifteen. What do you even do in there?” Tyler asked, turning to face Josh and moving slowly, almost imperceptibly closer, “The water is too cold for you to beat off.”

“You seem pretty fixated on my jacking off habits.” Josh murmured as Tyler invaded his space. 

“I find everything about you fascinating,” Tyler was so close Josh could see each tiny pockmark, the glisten of a thin sheen of oil on his pointed nose— so different in shape from Josh’s. “Like how often you need to come.” 

“It’s the morning,” Josh offered as explanation. 

“ _ I’m  _ here.” Tyler stuck his bottom lip out. 

Josh flicked it. 

“Too humid. As good as you are at head, I wouldn’t suggest getting near my balls right now.”

Tyler huffed and rolled his eyes. He brushed past Josh, slapping his ass lightly as he headed to his backpack to search for more clothing.  

The shower was a welcome relief, despite the rust around the drain and scratches in the wall. Tyler sang to himself ( _ loving what I’m tasting _ ) was faint through the door and over the spray; a soft soundtrack for Josh. He didn’t actually masturbate— just let the cold water sluice down his body, carrying away the sweat and dirt to pour into some unknown body of water. The image of his dead skin cells travelling the sewer system brought him back to the reality of his own summer. Trance broken, Josh decided to return to the heavy, muggy bedroom in their tiny, decaying house. 

Just Tyler and him in there— though there were so few rooms, it made no sense for anyone else to live with them, or any guests to come visit. No parent would be proud of the crack in the wall that stretched the length of the hallway, so inviting them for dinner on the once-white plastic lawn chairs was out of the question. Besides, all they ever had stocked in the fridge was leftover Taco Bell and a box of grocery store donuts on the counter. 

The whole neighborhood was empty— Josh had moved in with Tyler at the beginning of the summer and still had not seen anyone else taking out their trash or even driving down their street. Josh didn’t think he missed the company—they could carry on with their work with no curious eyes watching them

There only ever was one pool to clean. Josh drove the old truck just a few blocks away. They could have walked but heat suppressed their ability to move. In fact, even when they reached the pool, Tyler didn’t seem too keen to move. He directed Josh what to do, and Josh complied— it was his company after all, or at least his father’s. It was never too clear to Josh how it all worked, but either way, he was the employee. 

He hopped the fence for Tyler, unlocking the gate from the inside. No one was ever home, Tyler explained that was the service they paid for— leave for the day, and come home to a nice clean pool. Josh didn’t question it, picking his way carefully around the backyard. It could be a nice backyard if the patio was powerwashed, leaves and debris raked, and abandoned car parts removed. The pool needed their help.

Tyler stood at the edge, looking down at the cement bottom. The sun had dried every ounce of water from the — the leaves had baked on its surface.

“We should try to fry an egg down there,” Josh said, and Tyler barely reacted. 

He hummed in acknowledgement. “Hose is around the corner. We need to spray it down ‘else we’ll melt our shoes.”

“You’re the boss,” Josh shrugged.

He kicked some leaves as he walked to the side of the house. The leaves were disappointing— no crunching, and merely fluttered a few inches away. It was worth it for the swinging of his loose pants that Tyler laughed at.

“You’re gonna melt,” Tyler warned when he first saw them, but Josh knew he’d still roast even if he worked naked. At least the drab green pants were airy— he was used to the heat, but a sunburn would be intolerable, at least until it started to peel.

He was most proud of his hat— camo, an immensely out-of-style bucket hat. Anyone else would have made fun of him for it, or at least wrinkled their nose in disgust that he had found it discarded in the driveway under a moldy piece of plywood. But Tyler was positively envious and kept eyeing it. 

The battered green hose—headless without a nozzle or even a metal head— was in-congruently coiled neatly. It looked like it had been hacked with a machete and taped together. The water pressure was far from enough to fill the pool in a single day, and yet all Tyler directed Josh to do was to aim the hose. 

They spent most of the day in silence, Tyler wore his headphones that weren’t connected to anything, but he kept Josh company in the boiling sun. Anyone else would have been bored, but Josh found Tyler’s little movements, crouching-standing-crouching to be enough entertainment since his brain was already mush. Every day had been like this, and Josh was sure they cleaned  _ this _ pool before. It was always so tough to remember. There was something familiar, though, in the toxic waste. It felt like he had lived that summer for his entire life.

“Need some water to start cleaning the bottom…” Tyler told him, but his eyes were fixed on the corner of the yard, where the discarded car door lay against more trash and the fence.

Sometimes Josh jumped down and began to sweep up the leaves, other times he tossed the tires into the grass. He was just trying to build up his muscle, certain that all the manual labor would make him stronger, but it always landed in the same place. Other days, he just stood and let the water make a puddle all day. 

It didn’t matter what Josh did to the pool— Tyler would eventually stir from his trance as soon as the sun dipped low enough. He would spend the entire day with headphones on, moving to a beat Josh couldn’t hear. Josh was almost certain there was no music actually playing since the cord wasn’t connected to anything. It snaked into Tyler’s shirt pocket, but Josh never saw him fiddle with a phone or even a Walkman. Josh entertained the image of the headphones directly plugged into Tyler’s heart— he figured the soundtrack of Tyler’s soul would be a symphony of chords mixed to the steady percussion in his chest. 

He peeled the headphones from his ears and finally pulled Josh into focus. 

“It’s quittin’ time,” Tyler would announce, and it was the cue to drop the hose. 

Wading through the summer-thick air to turn off the spigot, Josh felt the exhaustion from standing beneath the sun. Every ounce of his energy leaked out like the water through the hose, but he had a job and that was to drive a silent Tyler back around the block. And every time he was certain he would immediately fall asleep as they got back to their house, the cool twilight air would breathe life back in him. Cheerily, they would eat their leftover Taco Bell, the laughter and jokes reminded Josh why he stayed.

“Didn’t we have this exact meal last night?” Josh asked once and was dismissed breezily.

“I would eat a Crunchwrap Supreme every day for the rest of my life if I could,” Tyler was a loud chewer, and sometimes didn’t pause to swallow first. His lips were cracked in the corners, and either blood or hot sauce gathered. Josh didn’t mind— worse things had been in either of their mouths.

Every night they ended up fucking on the very mattress they would wake up in the next day to repeat the cycle. Josh was sure Tyler didn’t sleep, though. His eyes were always open whenever Josh rolled over to look in the dead of night, glinting from the orange street lamp in their window. And when the sun roused him, Tyler would be standing and waiting.

“You don’t sleep,” Josh accused, and Tyler didn’t speak to him the rest of the day until he had Josh pinned to the mattress that night. A hand pressed with all his strength between Josh’s shoulder blades; Tyler told him he was beautiful.

* * *

No other jobs or calls came from Tyler’s dad. Every day they packed themselves into the truck and arrived at the pool at the empty house. Was it just a meaningless task that was assigned to do over and over and keep him away from the actual workings of the business? The only difference in the weeks or months since Josh called a number on ‘Summer Help Wanted’ flyer was a styrofoam cup Tyler clutched like morning coffee.

“What’s in there?” Josh nodded at it, Tyler carefully balancing as the old truck traveled over a speed bump.

“I’m quality testing some chlorine.”

“By drinking it?! I don’t think that’s—”

“No. I grew up with this stuff. Trust me, I know what I’m doing.” Tyler brushed him off, like he always did whenever Josh tried to ask a deeper question. It would have been irritating with anyone else, but something about how Tyler spoke and the heat that kept Josh almost apathetic.

The cup drew Josh’s eyes, watching it dance from down by Tyler’s hip to swing up and barely miss his lips as it passed under his nose. Tyler swayed and moved again as he always did, but the tease of the cup became closer and closer. It finally made contact, but in an instant, the cup was being pulled away.

Tyler jumped to his feet from his crouching position, moving to the car door.

“What—?” Josh asked and was silenced with a raised hand.

“I saw… It’s gone.”

“Saw what? Is the chlorine making you hallucinate or something?”

“I’ve dreamt about... A friend.” Tyler murmured, fiddled with his headphones, and fell silent. 

That night they had pizza delivered, and fell asleep on top of the covers with their clothes still on. Tyler had Josh’s bucket hat on his head when the latter woke, but he surrendered it bashfully. 

The cup stayed, and Josh began to watch the car door too. First there was a blur of a white ear that disappeared once Tyler made a move to investigate— they learned not to approach. Josh had experience with similar creatures; he had spent weeks as a teenager slowly befriending a stray cat who disappeared one winter day and left behind many questions. 

Within a few days of sitting and waiting, the creature emerged to take a good look at them. Knee-height, white— with blue ear hair and a pudgy stomach, the creature would have been simply adorable if he wasn’t so alien. 

“What the hell is that?” Josh couldn’t hold back his surprise, and it was his fault that he scared off—

“Ned,” Tyler  explained as if it was obvious. 

“Sorry.” Josh didn’t even question it.  “Sorry, Ned.”

It seemed like Ned had forgiven them by the next day, watching them at work for a long time.  Then he began to slip out further and further, never coming within arms’ reach, but inquisitive with his large black eyes. The shock of the first sighting had worn off, and there was something utterly calming about his presence. It was a serenity that differed from the mind-numbing routine of this summer; peace, acceptance… maybe even a goal. 

Ned stirred something soft in the bottom of Josh’s chest, and he found himself wondering about him when they weren’t at the pool. He could see in the glazed reflection of Tyler’s stare that he was thinking the same as he chewed his burrito slowly.

But Tyler was content in the routine, or else he was just too used to the pattern to consider moving forward. Josh knew better than to point it out to Tyler— they had made so much progress since Ned appeared that he didn’t want to shut Tyler down with stating he felt like they were stuck in a loop; a pool loop, funny enough.

The world was just the three of them, and everything shifted from curiosity and experimenting to get Ned closer, to actively trying to change their circumstances.

“Your chlorine seems to be what attracts him,” Josh pointed out, having already wasted so many days filling the same pool with the same dirty water. 

“I think he wants a bath,” Tyler turned to Josh with a grin that split his cracking lips even more, drawing forth a fat droplet of blood and an idea.

Ned had become less interested in them, and more inquisitive about the pool. He stared down into the cement basin; his fur was dirty, and if Josh and Tyler sweated despite their breezy, light clothing, Ned must be really suffering in the heat. 

Tyler dipped his finger in the blue substance, bringing to battered lips that were starting to fall away.

“There’s more in the shed behind the house,” Tyler told him, rising from a crouch with an effort that made him stumble. 

It was too early in the cycle for Josh to be dropping the hose, but there really wasn’t a reason for him to hold it all day. The pool would keep filling as he drove them there and back, ladening the back of the truck with barrels and jugs from the shed he never noticed. It wasn’t like he spent any time looking out the back windows. Tyler’s eyes were circled in sleepless bruises, and where he normally led, Tyler ceded the direction to Josh.

The creaking of the wheelbarrow heralded their approach; Ned would be intrigued with this change. He trusted them, that was clear— they hadn’t tried to touch him anymore. Josh saw some fluttering in the blurred edges of his periphery as he dumped container after container of blue chlorine. The volume in the pool exceeded anything Josh had ever accomplished, but the blue only turned the water brown-navy. He wasn’t even disappointed that Ned inspected and left, despite Tyler’s sigh. Josh wanted the pool to be perfect for Ned.

While there may have been no acknowledgement from Tyler that they were caught in a rut, cut off from human contact, it all was something so unnatural that seemingly subconsciously rejected the pattern and followed the attempts without protest. 

“What more could we do?” Tyler was exasperated. “What is he waiting for?”

Tyler just wanted it over, that was obvious to Josh. It wasn’t the point of this mission, and Josh appreciated the purpose of the universe; that they were supposed to learn something. It wasn’t clear to him what yet, and attempt after attempt— all the waiting they had done— Josh wondered what he was really rushing back to. He’d lost his job, hence why Tyler had hired him. He had no ties, nothing to  _ want _ to go back to.

And yet Josh kept pushing forward, dragging a somewhat reluctant Tyler along.

* * *

They stayed longer than any other day; the sun had already slipped beneath the horizon and the chlorine blended into the blue of dusk.

“It’s quittin’ time,” Tyler’s voice was suddenly the same as it always had been.

“But— wait, no. We’re getting so close,” Josh protested. “If we stop now… Ned _will_ come out once the pool is filled.” To leave meant a reset— there were years before of this very day where the pool would begin trashed and empty. 

“It’s too dark for a swim. We’re going.” Tyler’s tone was final. Josh followed back meekly; Tyler needed to be on board, too. 

All they had that night were Crunchwraps, and Tyler apologized in missionary with the softest kisses he could gift to Josh’s cheekbones. As tender as it was, Josh found himself unable to sleep, hovering between a circular track of anxious thoughts, and visions of crawling across sand to an ocean that never got any closer no matter how hard he tried— a beating of a flag on the wind the soundtrack of his struggle.

He sat up as soon as the room began to lighten, so early that Tyler hadn’t even left the bed, but he was still awake, of course.

“What’s wrong?”

“Tank,” Josh blurted out and lept to his feet to get dressed. “We need more chlorine.”

“Tank, where? We don’t have one.” The blankets were draped artfully over Tyler’s lap, but he followed when it was clear that Josh wouldn’t be returning to bed. 

“We will,” Josh said confidently. “There is a tank in the shed. It is there right now.” The house was so tiny that they were already in the backyard and marching through overgrown grass and a forest of dandelions.

“Dude, my dad didn’t store a tank there. He keeps those on the trucks, oh…”

Josh flung the door open to reveal a dully gleaming silver tank. Bigger than either of them, it was an impossible task for just one.

“How are we going to get it to the pool?” Tyler rapped his knuckles against the edge. “The truck would break down if we try to load it on the back.”

“Together. We’re gonna roll it there.”

“Josh, no way.”

“We have to do it,” Josh insisted. “I need you.”

“I- I don’t know if I can.” Tyler looked down at his feet, turning away from the shed.

“You were the one who wanted us to try and get Ned to come out. We’re almost there, man.”

“At first… yeah. But now… Josh, this is stupid. Why should we do all this, anyway? It’s not like…. I don’t know. This is just getting crazy…. Out of control. Things were fine before.”

“Yeah, but Tyler, that was  _ every day _ . We’re trapped here. You’ve noticed it too,” Josh couldn’t hold himself back anymore.

“Don’t—” Tyler started to walk back to the house.

“I know you’re scared,” Josh said, pleading. “It’s been easier living this way, but we can’t do it forever. We’ve got family… friends… we can’t forget about them entirely. Summer shouldn’t last forever. We need to stop pretending and start  _ doing _ .”

Tyler kept walking, and Josh realized that losing him, in the time loop or out of it, would be the most awful thing that could happen to him. 

Josh cried out, “I’m not going to leave you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Tyler paused, turning around. He looked less certain, more eroded than his usual casual stance. The sun illuminated his face, chasing away all shadows that would conceal his feelings like Tyler had been all alone. Josh found bare, naked fear in the tensing of his decomposing lips , and furrowing between his eyebrows. The floral shirt he had always worn was comical against the tension in his entire body.

“After all this, I could never leave you,” Josh took a step forward with each word, bring him closer to a perfectly-still Tyler. “I was so lonely before I found your flyer and now I can’t imagine not seeing you every day. I just want… I just want to have  _ different  _ days with you. Maybe some where we don’t go to work, maybe go to a movie, or even just spend a night in some air conditioning watching you play video games.”

Tyler let Josh take his hands and press a kiss to the knuckles of his thumbs. 

“I’ll smoke you in Mario Kart,” he conceded.

“Totally,” Josh agreed. “I’m pretty bad at it, but wait ‘till you meet my brother. You two will really get along.”

“I… look forward to it then,” Tyler eyed the tank. “Should we get going?”

“Yeah.” Josh gently slid Tyler’s headphones over his ears—his security, his safety net to keep wrapped around his head. “It’ll be easier with these on.”

* * *

For their sanity, for their future, for their very lives—they carefully tipped the tank to its side. As the well-synced team they had become, they began the journey to the only pool in their world.

Momentum was needed; Josh kept pushing even as Tyler floundered, whimpering in surprise from sunstroke hallucinations. Josh was steady, anchoring their mission. Every ounce of his being went into rolling that tank as Tyler fell to pieces, decayed, reformed, and growled to keep going. 

The rattling of the metal shook his nerves, vibrations numbing his arms to the ever-increasing temperature. Forward— forward. The few blocks and minutes it took to drive to the pool became centuries. Josh decided as they conquered the last hill that he wasn’t leaving until Ned swam. 

“The pool still has water in it!” Josh cheered, breathlessly. Their work from the prior day hadn’t been erased, the cracks evident in the cycle. 

Cursing, drawing blood on jagged edges and stumbling over broken cement— neither could be stopped. The tank was raised up with a clang that reverberated in their teeth. 

“You can do the honors.” Tyler handed the mallet to Josh. 

His arms shook as he raised it above his head, feeling that he may topple backwards from the weight of the hammer. Gravity was his friend, and with a satisfying clang and splash, the chlorine gushed into the pool. The water steamed and waves lapped the sides temptingly. 

“We did it,” Tyler sighed. 

“This has  _ got  _ to be clean enough.”

“I mean, I think it would burn one of us. It’s gotta be just right for him.”

They turned and stared hard at Ned’s home, and willed him to exit. Sure enough, the little creature waddled out, certainly excited by their progress. 

“C’mon,” Josh found himself whispering, while Tyler’s lips moved silently in prayer, and teeth gnawed flakes of dead skin. 

Josh’s breath caught in his throat; if Ned wouldn’t swim, would Tyler continue on or would he give up on Josh? The epiphany they had realized all the way back by the shed was fragile and new— would the promise of a future together be enough?

And sure enough, as if even letting himself think the passing thought that it wouldn’t work, Ned turned back like he had many times before. Josh coached his face into casual disappointment with a head shake to Tyler, hiding that he was out of ideas. 

“I think we’re almost there,” Josh started to say. “We’ve just got to add a bit more—”

“Oh!” Tyler called out, and in a flash Ned was  _ running _ and jumping into the pool with a magnificent cannonball. 

Relief coursed through his veins. Next to Josh, Tyler crumbled like a puppet with its strings cut, but Josh was there instinctively. Catching Tyler, lowering him to his knees. The heat barely touched them as they draped over each other, concrete damp and cool from splashes. 

Tyler pressed his head to Josh’s chest. The brim of Josh’s hat cast a little shadow over Tyler’s cheek. Cradling him tightly, Josh hope the promise of his words would sink in through every pore in Tyler’s body. 

“Let’s jump in,” Josh said and Tyler pulled his head away. 

“B-but we could be burned.”

“No, I don’t think we will. Something tells me we will be fine,” Josh was certain. “C’mon, it’ll feel nice.”

They held hands, and Josh secured his hat with his free hand. Ned circled the shallow end with magnificent antlers fully formed from his head. A look toward each other, a squeeze of finality, and they ran as one and plunged into the frothing water. 

Josh felt like he was falling forever— completely submerged, but no need to breathe. He sank quickly, rocked gently to sleep, and not even aware of landing till cold air stirred across his face

Josh pulled his eyes open slowly and found himself surrounded by night. The world was sideways, Josh’s cheek was familiar with the cement of the pool bottom. Everything was clean. The water was gone. All debris was discarded and the only other things—people— he could see were Ned and the slumped figure of Tyler. 

He was always awake. 

“I think we… I think we did it,” Tyler broke the silence, eyes on Ned approaching him. “And he stuck around.”

The styrofoam cup of chlorine sat on the ledge above Tyler’s head. Josh considered it to be a sign— maybe a final task. 

His clothes were soaked and dripped a trail behind him as Josh hoisted himself to walk around the empty pool. Tyler’s complete attention was on Ned, till Josh startled him by offering the cup to him. 

It was the closest Ned had ever been, and despite all the chlorine they poured into the pool, he flinched away. 

Looking into the cup, Tyler shrugged. “Guess it’s too strong after all.” Finally, he set it aside. 

Josh settler next to him, and the trio looked skyward to stars that hadn’t come out any prior night. Tyler leaned against him, just as wet as Josh. 

“I thought you were going to forget me when you woke up,” Tyler whispered. 

“How could I ever forget you?” So much had been built between them and their reward was each other. 

“So what do we do now?”

Josh kissed Tyler’s head, “Dunno. But let’s wait till morning and find out.”

Slowly the sky turned milky, and a single bird began to sing.  Ned swayed with the tune. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was very inspired by the overall vibe of the Chlorine video, and along the way, I realized how inspirational it's been seeing Josh first talk about facing his fears, and then actually doing it. He's been taking the plunge and speaking in a foreign language in front of thousands of people and I'm so proud of him.
> 
> thank you to thedyingsun for helping me with this concept, when i got stuck, and also being full of wisdom and kindness. special thanks to any of my friends who i've whined about this fic to.
> 
> first fic of 2019! I've got many more WIPs, so hopefully you'll be seeing those soon.
> 
> teeentyonepilots on tumblr, trenchtowel on twitter; drop me a comment sometime, I love hearing what you think. by the way I posted this wearing a bright yellow bucket hat


End file.
